My Identity and Values

posted on: 22 April 2022

My personal values

When I did the 16 personalities test 5 years ago, I was an artiest. This time I'm an INFJ Advocate, which is the rarest personality of all types. There are several similarities between these two types. Reading through the analysis, I came to realize that integrity, honesty and kindness are some key values that have been important to me. Although being kind to people sometimes has different meanings and aspects.

Working in the early childhood sector, it's important to follow certain rules and regulations in order to ensure the safety of tamariki. I once worked with a teacher who just moved from another country. She was a primary school teacher, which is a bit different from working with young children. When she first started there were situations happened I witnessed that could affect children's safety, such as, to leave children in an unsupervised area, or to leave scissors or hot water in the reach of children. As a co-worker I didn't want to keep telling her what she should or should not do in case she thinks I'm annoying, but on another thought, I feel actually being kind and helping requires more than that. If I kept quiet about these situations, it could seriously affect children's safety right at the moment. It could also get her into trouble with any accidents happening. So I chose to remind her so as to prevent any accidents from happening. After telling her she realized these kind of things didn't across her mind before. And she thanked me for telling her that.

Coming from an Asian background, some of the values definitely has helped shaping who I am today. For example, there's an ancient Chinese saying by Confucius: "Only treat others the way you want to be treated." I think this also means to be kind to others. Asia culture also advocate people to be moderate in life, and not make yourself stand out too much. After moved to New Zealand, I found that it has stuck so deep in my head, I might have been following the value without even realizing it!

My Strengths and Limitations

My strengths in terms of learning and career development include:

Creative

I enjoy many kinds of creative activities. I have done some charcoal painting, oil painting, and watercolor painting in my spare time. I'm also learning the ukulele and have recently started to learn hip-pop dancing during weekends. I especially like all sorts of design, such as interior design, fashion design, and web design. I think this can help with web development because we sometimes need to design our own web pages.

Organized

I consider myself an efficient and organized person when it comes to studying and work. I could weigh out which task is more important or more urgent and finish each task according to the deadline.

Passionate

I could be really passionate about things I like. And web design and development is one of them. Based on the amount of time I have put into this and the sense of enjoyment I feel, (especially the sense of fulfilment while finishing a project), I would say I'm really passionate about being a web designer/developer.

Patience

While observing and supporting children in their learning, I came to realize that patience and perseverance are some key aspects for achieving a person’s goal. Patience is also what I think necessary to be a developer. The coding process is never easy. It is usually made of obstacles, bugs, and headaches. But I am determined and never want to give up. Each time I would use my patience to look at the code, find out the problem and look for solutions to solve it.

My Limitations:

One of my limitations is that it can take time for me to open up and form a relatively close relationship with others. Sometimes I could be seem not so outgoing.

Also I'm an idealist and I like things to be perfect. I could be afraid to do things because I'm afraid I can't do it well. But after learning the growth mindset, I'm working on to not attach too much emphasis on the result but to learn from the process.

Share an example from your experience of where you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension:

I can't really think of a situation when I experience resistance when working with other people. Even though arguments or desagreements can happen, people usually have the intention to work the problem out. The only thing I could think of is when my boyfriend has finished his master's study. He was a bit reluctant when he needed to look for a job. I tried to ask him why but there wasn't much response. Sometimes I had to pretend to be angry and fight with him so he would start sending his cv to companies. Well, it did work out because he found a job not long after. But If I were to experience that again, I might try to have a real conversation with him, to ask him what the problem is and discuss how we can overcome it together.